and more than 50 % of these patients require radiation therapy but currently , our nation is underequipped to meet the needs of cancer patients . According to the WHO guidelines , there should be one radiotherapy machine per million people , which is around 1400 machines to make cancer care accessible to all , but currently , there are only around 600 radiotherapy machines in India . This deficit in radiotherapy machines is reflected in the waiting period in radiotherapy departments which sometimes lines up for a year .
Furthermore , it has been observed that patients in India ' s public sector lack timely access to radiotherapy , and the majority of these technologies are only present in a handful of private entities in the city , making them inaccessible to patients in rural areas . It is essential to expand accessibility to radiation
therapy by implementing a hub and spoke model at various public entities and enhancing infrastructure to accommodate radiation therapy across all regions .
Hub and spoke model changing the dynamics of cancer infrastructure
According to Elekta ’ s ACCESS2025 strategy , the goal to provide all cancer patients access to affordable , high-quality care through radiation therapy is underway . In order to accomplish this , cancer treatments must be accelerated to deliver effective radiotherapy over a shorter course of treatment and with fewer hospital stays . This vision will be achieved by accelerating innovation and driving adoption based on the needs of the patient . Additionally , fostering the relationship with the patients using technology such as ‘ Axis Cloud ’ offers sophisticated automated operations to enhance
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BioVoiceNews | February 2023